NORFOLK, Va. (August 1, 2018) – According to documents filed with the FEC and the Virginia Department of Elections, at least four paid workers on Republican Congressman Scott Taylor’s campaign for reelection collected hundreds of signatures to put Shaun Brown on the ballot as an independent candidate in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District election.

Brown ran against Taylor as a Democrat in 2016. She is on trial for fraud, and some believe her appearance on the ballot threatens to split the Democratic vote in a highly competitive race.

The four workers collected these signatures in the last days before Virginia’s primary election, which was also the deadline for Brown to submit the required signatures to state authorities. FEC documents show people with the same names and addresses were being paid by the Taylor campaign in this period. The payments were described as “payroll” or “campaign consulting – staff.” There appears to have been a fifth worker, affiliated with Republican causes and the Taylor campaign, who aided the effort.

WHRV producer Paul Bibeau uncovered this information while reviewing Shaun Brown’s campaign filings, which have become an issue in her trial.

WHRV reached out to the Taylor and Brown campaigns for comment Tuesday afternoon, and received the following response from Scott Weldon, spokesman for Taylor: “Unlike Elaine Luria and the Democrats in Washington, who de-legitimized the primary election process in this congressional district, many people here saw that a real injustice had been done against the 2016 2nd District Democrat nominee, Shaun Brown. Some people volunteered to fix this injustice.”

No comment had been received from the Brown campaign at the time of this release.

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